Greaser Girl
by Butterfly Hippie
Summary: Pony has a twin sister, Amy, who has health problems. When Amy gets really sick and ends up in the hospital, how will her brothers and the rest of the gang react?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Hey, Ames, wake up, sleepyhead!" I groaned and rolled over in bed. Unfortunately, the side I rolled over on was not the side the wall was on, and I rolled right out of bed and onto the floor with a loud THUMP! My second oldest brother, Sodapop, didn't notice, he head already moved on to wake up my twin brother, Ponyboy.

Who am I? I'm Amy Curtis. My friends and family sometimes call me Ames, though. I'm the youngest member of the Curtis family, even though Pony's my twin. Ponyboy was born approximately three minutes before me. And both of us were born three months prematurely. God, were we tiny babies, I've seen pictures. But Pony's the lucky one; he escaped from the premature birth with nothing, but a tendency to get sick more often than most people. I, however, wasn't so lucky. I got a whole host of health problems. Not only am I prone to sicknesses, but I also have cerebral palsy and asthma. Cerebral palsy affects my muscles, every single one of 'em. I was deprived of oxygen at birth and that caused some sort of injury to my brain. So, I got CP. I can't walk very well, and I get tired a lot sooner than most people, which is why when we go out I usually use a manual wheelchair. I also have very bad balance. But I can walk unaided...barely. I have this awkward stride that's sometimes gotten me in trouble with the cops because they thought I was drunk. But I don't drink, neither does Pony. The one difference between me and Pony, though, was the fact that he smoked and I don't. It's bad for my asthma. I have enough trouble breathing as it is, if I tried smoking, I'd be dead.

I look like a girl version of Ponyboy, people say. Big surprise, since we're twins. I have the same greasy long hair, so light brown its almost blonde. I have the same cloudy green-gray eyes as Pony. I have long legs, which is kind of a nuisance. I mean, I'm tripping all the time anyway, longer legs just gives me another thing to trip over. But back to that morning.

I untangled myself from my covers and went over to Pony's bed. Pony always has a bit of a hard time waking up. I usually sit on him to make him wake up. This particular morning, I chose his ankles to sit on. Pony groaned and tried to kick me off his legs. He was unsuccessful.

"Ames...quit sitting on my legs!" I giggled. We went through this routine practically every morning.

"Not until you get up. Darry's making his usual Saturday morning breakfast." I got up, freeing Pony's ankles, and turned on the light. Then I returned to Ponyboy's ankles.

"Ames...the whole point of Saturday morning is to sleep late." This comment was somewhat muffled, as Pony had covered his face with his pillow to shield his eyes from the light. Before I had a chance to respond though, Darry came in. Darryl, or Darry for short, is my oldest brother. He's around twenty or so. He seems a lot older though. Maybe that's because he had to grow up real fast when Mom and Dad died, and he was left with two brothers and a sister to raise, especially a sister with health problems like me.

"Amy, get off Ponyboy's legs." Darry directed. "Pony, get up. You can't sleep the day away. Anyhow, the gang's here." _The gang_ is Keith Matthews, but everyone calls him Two-Bit, Dallas Winston, but everyone calls him Dally, Steve Randle, Soda's best buddy, and last but not least, Johnny Cade. Johnny's sorta like the gang pet. He has dark hair and wide, expressive eyes that reminded Pony of a lost puppy. He's jumpy and nervous, particularly because he got jumped by some Socs a few months back. Socs are our enemies, the type of kids that get into the paper for being good one day and then get in the paper the next day for stealing or something like that. We're Greasers. We're all greasers, the whole gang. Our name comes from the phenomenal amount of hair grease we use to slick back our long hair. I'm a Greaser girl, always have been and always will be.

"Hey, Ames, wha'tcha thinking about?" Darry asked, seeing that I was staring into space, which I do often. I shook my head to clear it of the lingering thoughts.

"Oh, nothing." I yawned, then said without thinking "I wish I had a couple more hours of sleep." Darry, Pony, and Soda, who had come up behind Darry while I was lost in my thoughts, burst into laughter.

"Golly, Ames, you're gettin' more like Ponyboy every day!" Darry commented. I grinned.

"I guess I am." And with that, I started downstairs to say hi to the gang. My day had begun.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I went down the stairs to meet up with the rest of the gang. Unfortunately, I was giggling about sitting on Ponyboy's ankles, and wasn't watching where I was going. My foot missed the last step, I let go of the railing, and crashed into the kitchen, face first. I landed hard on my hands and knees. That's usually the way I fall nowadays, on my hands and knees. Mom and Dad taught me at an early age to put my hands out when I feel myself falling, and now I think it's just a reflex. The gang, who was used to seeing me fall, just chewed their mouthfuls of scrambled eggs and patiently waited for me to pick myself up. I did.

"You okay, Ames?" Darry asked as I took a seat at the table. I nodded, not embarrassed at all that the gang had seen me fall. I'd grown up with them; they were practically like my other brothers.

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"That's gonna leave some nasty bruises." Two-Bit said, cocking an eyebrow. I shrugged.

"So? I don't care. I have so many bruises I'm not gonna notice a couple more." I took a strip of bacon and chewed slowly, smoothing my jeans as I ate.

"Anyway, Ames, you wanna play football with us after breakfast?" Soda asked, changing the subject. I grinned. I loved playing football with the guys, even though I totally sucked at it. With my bad balance, I usually fell on average four times a game. But I didn't care. Playing football with my brothers, Two-Bit, Dally, Johnny and Steve made me feel like I was normal, like I was just a kid playing football with her pals.

"Sure! I'd love to." That was all it took. With no further urging, the eight of us finished our breakfast, and, leaving our dirty dishes on the table, rushed out to the backyard.

"So, who're the teams gonna be?" Darry asked, looking around. "Curtis family against Johnny, Two-Bit, Steve, and Dally?"

"Yeah!" the gang roared. With no further ado, the game began. Our team was loosing six to two when I started having a little trouble breathing.

"Time!" Darry hollered, crossing his hands in the T sign. He jogged over to my side, looking concerned.

"I think you're overdoing it, Ames. You better sit down." He tugged on my shirt sleeve and started dragging me out of the way of the game. Darry could sometimes be accidentally rough. I pulled out of his grasp and stared at him defiantly, my hands on my hips.

"Darry, I'm fine. Besides, if I drop out, the teams will be uneven." Darry considered this for a minute.

"Aw, all right. You can still play. But if you start having trouble breathing again, just give me a signal, and you can drop out of the game." I nodded, and Darry jogged back to the rest of the team.

"Time in!" he hollered, and the game started again. But a few minutes later, I was wheezing and coughing even worse than before.

"Time!" Darry called. The other team groaned. Darry came back to me.

"Amy Elizabeth Curtis, your asthma is acting up again, and you know it. Now I _insist_ you drop out of the game. I don't want you having a full-fledged asthma attack."

"But the teams will be uneven!" I protested feebly. Darry crossed his arms and gave me that _I'm in charge here_ look.

"So we'll end the game." This drew dramatic groans from Two-Bit's team.

"Aw, you just wanna end the game 'cause you're losing!" Dally jeered loudly. Darry turned to give that same _I'm in charge_ look to Dally.  
"We're ending the game." he said icily. "Case closed." We all headed back to the house, the other team groaning and complaining loudly about the short game. I felt upset and horribly guilty. Another game had been ruined because of my stupid health problems. Pony noticed the look on my face.

"It's OK, Ames." he said, so softly that only I could hear him. "We'll find somethin' else to do." And somehow, my twin brother made it all better, like he always did.

A/N: OK, so I might be crazy for starting another story when I have a zillion other stories I should be working on. But I love the Outsiders. And plus, there are a lot of ppl who haven't read my other stories, so you won't be complaining about how I have a disabled main character in every one of my stories. I have cerebral palsy, myself, so that's why I know so much about it. R&R!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Ponyboy didn't say anything until that night, when we were alone in our room.

"Listen, Ames, don't feel bad about this morning." he started. I raised my head. I was on my bed reading a book.

"Oh, yeah? And why shouldn't I? Just because my goddamn health ruined our game?" I said sourly. I was wheezing. Pony noticed.

"You sure you're okay? You don't sound very good." Pony asked cautiously. He knew that I was tired, and in a bad mood. When I'm tired and in a bad mood I'm likely to snap at people without meaning to.

"I'm fine, Ponyboy." I turned back to my book. Truth was, I hadn't been feeling well for a few days. My throat ached and my head pounded. I wanted to sleep so badly, but I knew Ponyboy would know I was sick if I fell asleep.

"Amy...there's some things you ain't gonna be able to do...like play football. Don't feel bad about it. There's some things I can't do, either."

"Oh, yeah? Like what?" I countered. There was an edge to my voice. I felt bad. I didn't mean to seem so annoyed.

"Like cock an eyebrow, like Two-Bit can." He had a point there. But still, it wasn't the same.

"But I ain't able to do those things 'cause of my disabilities. You ain't like me." Pony grew real quiet after that.

"Amy...I don't know what havin' a disability is like. Even I tried real hard to understand, I couldn't. 'Cause I ain't in your body. But I'm thinking it's tough. Havin' people stare at you, not being able to do stuff...havin' those awful cramps in your legs that you sometimes cry 'cause the pain is so bad. But don't feel sorry for yourself, Ames. Self-pity ain't gonna get you nowhere. You know what Mom used to say: Ya gotta get up and keep going even when you just feel like bawlin'. So you gotta get up from this funk, Ames. I wanna see my twin sister Amy, smiling and laughin' like you always do." I cracked a smile at that.

"'Atta girl!" Pony said. Then we just sorta' fell into each other's arms. Ponyboy pulled back and put a hand on my forehead.

"Ames, you have a fever. I _knew_ you wasn't feelin' well." I sighed.

"It's nothing, Pony, I just need a little rest. Please don't tell Darry and Sodapop. I don't want them fussing over me." Pony considered this for a minute.

"Please, Ponyboy." I pleaded. Pony finally nodded.

"Alright."

"I think I'm gonna go take a walk, OK? I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Alright. But if you start feeling worse, you come back straightaway." Ponyboy warned, and he sounded so much like Darry that I almost laughed.

"Alright. Tell Darry and Soda that I went out for a bit."

I walked to the park and sat on the edge of the fountain, watching the first bright stars appear in the sky. The park was peaceful, quiet. _Why can't life just be like that?_ I wondered. _Peaceful and quiet, no fighting or anything. No rumbles between Greasers and Socs. We're all people, after all. What's so different 'bout that? We all see the same stars every night in the sky. We're all just kids wise beyond our years. As a matter of fact, I don't see much difference between us and the Socs at all. One of us has long, greasy hair and the other don't. That's about all the difference I see._ I suddenly realized that this must be how a little kid thought. No difference between all the people, just _people_ plain and simple. No hate, no prejudice. Just...peace. I was so absorbed in my thoughts I almost jumped out of my skin when a red Mustang drove up. Oh yeah, that's another thing the CP does to me. It makes me jump a whole lot at noises. It's called a startle reflex. Three Socs climbed out of the Mustang and started towards me. I knew they were drunk, and they couldn't be planning anything good.

_Run_, my brain urged me. _Run for it. You ain't a bad runner for short distances. You can get a good start on them. _But I couldn't. I froze, held in place by my spastic muscles. Damn my disability. The Socs lurched unsteadily towards me. One stopped so close to me that I could smell the booze on his breath.

"Well, well, well it's a little girl greaser." he drawled. "Just as greasy and dirty as her little greasy pals. You're a pretty girl." It wasn't a compliment. "We don't like pretty greasers. Maybe a nice dip in the fountain will wash some of that greasy grease out of your greasy long hair." I finally thought of something to say to that.

"No!" I screamed, wishing wildly that someone-anyone would hear me and investigate. The Soc merely grinned and nodded towards one of his buddies.

"Rob here's gonna give you a bath. Dunk her, Rob." Rob lurched towards me and grabbed me by the back of my shirt. The next thing I knew, I was plunged into the icy cold fountain water. I sputtered and choked, trying to inhale, but breathing in only water. _This is it_,I thought wildly. _This is the end. I'm gonna drown here and no one will ever know what happened, 'cept maybe Ponyboy 'cause he's like that. I'm gonna drown. This is it. I'm gonna get killed, all 'cause I'm a goddamn greaser. I hate you, Socs. I hate you...I hate you. _My spastic muscles slowly relaxed and I went limp as the world went black.

SODA'S POV

Darry paced the floor nervously. Ponyboy and I watched him silently from where we clung to each other on the living-room couch. Amy had gone for a walk hours ago, and never returned.

"What if she got jumped? Dammit, I shoulda made her carry a blade! She's not safe out there by herself, 'specially in her condition! What if she has an asthma attack? Or if she falls and can't get up? Dammit, that girl has no common _sense_!" The phone rang shrilly, interrupting Darry's worried tirade. He snatched it up.

"Amy? Ames, is that you?" I couldn't make out the words that the person on the other end said, but it sure as hell wasn't Amy, I could tell by the way Darry's shoulders sagged and the look of hope vanished from his eyes.

"Uh-huh. Right. Alright, we'll be right there." Darry hung up the phone slowly...so slowly. His face was a greenish-pale color. I hadn't seen him look that way since the day we found out Mom and Dad were dead. _Shit, maybe that's it_, I thought. _Maybe Amy's dead. Maybe we'll never see her again. Maybe..._Darry finally spoke. His voice was shaking, but he seemed relatively calm.

"Two-Bit found Amy." he said.

"What?"

"Where?"

"Is she OK?" Darry held up a trembling hand to stop the flood of questions coming from me and Pony.

"He found her in the park, lying next to the fountain. She's alive, but just barely. Two-Bit thinks that the Socs jumped her and dunked her in the fountain, but then heard something and ran away. Goddamn Socs." I'd never seen Darry this upset. Usually Darry bottled up his emotions, tucked them all away neatly so he wouldn't lose his self-control. This was one of the first times I had seen him visibly shaken. A soft sound from beside me made me look at Ponyboy. He was crying softly, the tears rolling down his cheeks. I put an arm around him.

"Pony, baby, what's wrong?" I asked in concern.

"It's all my fault!" he bawled. Darry and I exchanged puzzled glances. How the hell could Pony think this was his fault?

"She...she was sick!" Pony continued, the tears falling faster and faster now. "She had a fever! The Socs probably took advantage of the fact that she was sick to jump her!" Now the glance that I exchanged with Darry was worried.

"Pony, honey, why didn't you tell us before?" Darry asked, sitting on the other side of Pony.

"She...she made me promise not to tell you guys!" he cried out. "She didn't want you fussing over her!"

"Goddammit." Darry breathed softly. "I don't like the sound of this. Come on. Let's go. Two-Bit's meeting us at the hospital." Darry dug around in his pocket for his car keys. I gently took them from him.

"I'll drive." I said. Darry shook his head.

"No. I'll drive. You're not of driving age yet, and I don't want you to get in trouble with the fuzz. I don't want one kid sister in the hospital, and one kid brother in jail. Goddammit, don't I have enough problems!"

"Fine. Let's just go." Darry took the keys back from me and we started for the hospital, all of us wondering whether we'd ever see Amy okay again.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

PONYBOY'S POV

"It's all my fault...it's all my fault." I murmured as I stared down at the lifeless form of my sister Amy.

"It's not your fault, Pony." Soda reassured me, as he had done many times that day. He put a comforting arm around my shoulder. I pushed it away.

"Yes, Soda, it is my fault. I knew she was sick...I didn't do anything! I shoulda convinced her to stay home! Or at least gone with her! I should've told you and Darry that she was sick, then maybe you could've stopped her from going to the park. Goddamnit, I _know_ Amy doesn't think straight when she's well, much less when she's sick! She should've been carrying a blade. She was totally defenseless and helpless! Shit, I bet those Socs thought they'd found the perfect person to jump: A tiny little greaser girl who's crippled and unarmed. They probably thought she was even younger than she is, since she's always been small for her age. She was the perfect target."

"Even if she was carrying a blade, she wouldn't have used it." Soda pointed out quietly, in the dazed, toneless voice that he had been talking in ever since Two-Bit found Amy in the park. "She wouldn't hurt a living thing. She's soft. Like you, Pony. No wonder you two are twins. Neither one of you could hurt someone on purpose. Even if she wasn't quite so soft, even if she tried to use the blade...she wouldn't have done anything major to those Socs. Her aim's bad." That was true. The CP affected all muscles of Amy's body, including her motor skills and eye-hand coordination. I remembered when we were little kids, how Dad would take us all out into the backyard and play baseball with us, with Mom watching. Dad would always pitch gently and straight to Amy, but she would always swing at the wrong time and strike out. I would always get a home run. Sometimes Amy would even start to cry because she knew she was bad at sports, and always would be. I hoped with all my heart that Amy would live to strike out again.

We didn't know how bad she was, yet, only that she was in pretty bad shape. Soda and I were sitting in plastic hospital chairs. You know the kinds that are so hard that you think they were originally rocks, just painted that hideous orange color. A third orange chair stood next to Soda's chair, empty. That was Darry's chair. Darry was talking to the doctors now. It was the first time any one of us had left Amy's bedside all day.

The door creaked open and Darry walked in. He had the staggering walk of a drunken guy, but he wasn't drunk. He was just dazed, and upset. Soda and I waited expectantly as he crossed the room and sat back down in that hard plastic chair. After what seemed like hours, he finally spoke.

"Well, she was almost drowned by those Socs, but that's not the problem. The drowning doesn't seem to have had any lasting brain damage." Well, that was good news. But then why wasn't Darry happier?

"Well then, that's good, ain't it?" Soda asked tentatively. Then what Darry had said sunk in: _But that's not the problem_. That meant there _was_ a problem.

"The problem is, she was laying there on the concrete for hours, with wet hair, and wet clothes-and she was sick to begin with. The docs think that what she had from the start was just a touch of the flu, but lying there wet like that turned it into pneumonia. She's real sick, guys." There was silence for a moment as the impact of Darry's words hit us.

"Will...will she live?" Soda's voice was barely above a whisper. Darry's eyes were serious.

"I'm not gonna lie to you. The docs said it could go either way at the moment. She might live-or she might not." Now there was a longer silence. This time the silence was heavy with the realization that Amy might not live to see her fifteenth birthday. She might not even get close. Then Sodapop spoke again.

"What are the words you think of when you think of Amy?" Trust Soda to say something random at a time like this. But it got us thinking.

"Sweet...quiet...musical." Darry said slowly. Musical was definitely a good one. Amy was very musical. She loved to sing, and had a great voice. When she sang, it made chills go down my back. Singing was really the only thing that Amy could do well. I had track. Amy had chorus. She had been hoping for a solo in her chorus's Spring Concert. If she got one, would she live to sing it?

"Laughter..." I started. Amy loved to laugh, and her laugh was contagious. When she laughed, her green eyes sparkled, and it was like the whole world laughed with her.

"Innocent...tough...sensitive...brave." I continued, and my voice broke. Against my will, my eyes swam with tears and the hospital floor grew blurry. The tears dripped down my face. Some landed on Amy's unmoving body. I looked from Darry to Soda and both of them were crying too. Even Darry, who I had thought never cried. All of a sudden, through the tears, I got a strong feeling. Amy was going to wake up. And she was going to wake up soon.

"I have the weirdest feeling...but I think Amy's gonna wake up soon." My words took all of us by surprise, even me, and I had known they were coming. Soda wiped the tears away with the back of his hand and said nothing. Darry, however, stared at me, tears still shining on his handsome face.

"You sure, Ponyboy?" The feeling grew stronger. I nodded, sure of myself now.

"Yeah. I'm sure. Amy's gonna wake up." This time it was Soda who spoke next.

"I don't know, Pony..."

"I'm sure of it. She's gonna wake up." And I _was_ sure of it. At that moment, there was nothing that I believed more strongly then that my twin sister was going to wake up.

"How do you know?" Darry challenged. I looked him straight in the eye.

"I don't know how I know. But I know. Amy is going to wake up." At that moment there was a slight stirring from the bed.

"Glory Hallelujah, Pony, you're right! She's waking up!" All three of us looked down. Amy's eyelids fluttered, and then opened to reveal frightened green eyes.

"Ponyboy..." she whispered, looking right at me. My heart almost broke. She looked so helpless, lying there like that.

"Shh, Ames. Don't try and talk. You've got a tube in your throat helping you breathe." Darry took charge, as usual.

"So...scared. Damn Socs." she whispered hoarsely. My nervous stomach quieted a little bit. If she was damning the Socs, it was the same old Amy.

"How...long?" was the next thing she said. Soda stroked her brownish blonde hair, which pooled around her thin, pale face on the pillow.

"How long have you been unconscious? 'Bout a day now, hon. We were so worried about you. We thought we were going to lose you, too." Soda didn't have to explain what that meant. Amy knew that he was talking about Mom and Dad.

Amy smiled and tried to say something else, but only a few sentences had tired her out. She sank back into the pillows and held up one hand, thumb out, with the two middle fingers down and the two end fingers up. It was the sign for _I love you_. Me and Amy had taken a sign-language course at the Y a few years back, 'round the same time Darry took that aerobics class. I had never really used sign language, but Amy practiced her signing every once in awhile, just in case she ever needed it. Amy's hand dropped back down to the bed, and a soft sigh was heard as she closed her eyes and sank back down into unconsciousness.

I went back to school the next day. I didn't want to, but Darry made me go. "I don't want you moping around all day while me and Soda are at work. You need something to take your mind off things." I didn't argue. Maybe I did need something to take my mind off things. Amy had been drifting in and out of consciousness ever since she first had woken up the night before.

All day in school, whispers of other kids followed me. They pointed at me "Isn't that the girl with the crippled sister?" they said. "Isn't she really sick now? Gosh, I'm sorry." But I knew the truth. They weren't really sorry at all.

Nobody had ever liked Amy, maybe 'cause she was crippled. Amy was a good student, real smart. She got A's in everything, especially English. English was her favorite subject. She loved to write poetry-and I loved to read it. People felt sorry for her, but stayed away from her because they were afraid that if they got too close, they would be crippled, too. They made fun of her too, whether it was to her face or behind her back didn't matter. The taunts hurt her all the same. In grade school, Amy had had a few friends, but they were all gone now, sucked up in the popular crowd. They were the ones that now routinely made fun of her. Thank god Amy had me. I don't know what she would have done if she didn't have me. Nobody cared about Amy except me and Darry and Soda and the gang. Nobody ever wanted to be Amy Curtis's friend. They never knew how much it would have meant to her if even one person was able to see past her disability and into the true Amy.

My teachers made sympathetic noises and told me that they were very sorry about my sister, but they didn't care either. To them, Amy Curtis was a nuisance, a good student, but often absent because of her medical problems. A nice girl, but kept to herself. That was true, at any rate. Amy only talked, really talked, when she was at home, with me and the rest of the gang. Those teachers didn't know that Amy kept to herself because she was scared that if she tried to reach out to someone, they would only be nice to her because they felt bad for her. That had happened once or twice, and Amy was always afraid of it happening again.

The only teacher that really seemed to care was Mr. McIverson, the chorus teacher. Chorus always had been Amy's favorite class. She even had a little crush on Mr. McIverson. He loved her as much as she loved him. Mr. McIverson pulled me away from the rest of the class and asked me in a low voice how Amy was doing.

"Not good. She's been slipping in and out of consciousness since last night. The...the docs think she might not live." I answered, trying hard to keep my voice steady. Mr. McIverson looked genuinely concerned.

"She was my favorite student." he murmured, more to himself than to me. "I was going to give her that solo she wanted so badly. She wasn't the only one who had the voice for the part, but she was the only one that seemed _right_ for the part, you know? I don't want anyone else to sing that solo. If Amy can't have it...nobody can have it." Then he played a loud chord on the piano and hollered for everyone to be quiet. I headed back to my seat as the room grew silent.

"Listen up!" he announced, now sounding more like a teacher and less like just a concerned adult. "You know that solo I was planning on having?" There were a few muttered yesses from the kids around me, but most kids just waited to hear the next part.

"I have decided on a lady to sing the part." The room grew tense and completely silent. Everybody waited expectantly to hear the name of the soloist, each hoping wildly that it would be her.

"She is in the hospital with a serious case of pneumonia right now, but if she returns to school in time for the Spring Concert, the part will be sung by Miss Amy Curtis. As of now, I will not choose a replacement soloist to sing the part if she does not return." There were shouts and hisses of outrage. Every girl in the ladies section had been hoping for that solo. Now it was going to be sung by a crippled girl who might not even come back in time to sing the part.

"Teacher's pet!" one of the Soc girls hollered. Then she turned to look at me. She was pudgy, with fat sort of spilling over on her thighs. Her nose was big and kind of squashed in. She had small watery blue eyes that glared at me as she spoke.

"Listen, kid." she said. "I hate your sister. Got it? She's a good-for-nothing cripple that should've been thrown in a girls home a long time ago. She doesn't deserve that part. _I _should've gotten that part. The only reason she got that solo was because McIverson feels sorry for her, being sick and crippled and all. I hate her, and you can tell that whiney little greaser I said that." Then she spat at me, and it didn't make me feel so hot, if you know what I mean. A few seats down, Cherry Valance was glaring so fiercely at the girl's turned back that I swore I could see the fire in her eyes. Cherry caught me after class.

"Ponyboy...I'm so sorry about Amy. Really, I am." I don't know if it was the pleading tone of her voice, or the tears in her eyes that got me, but somehow I knew she was sincerely sorry. I was about to be nice to her, admit to her how scared out of my mind I was. But then I remembered that night at the movies, and how she had told me to not take it personally if she didn't say hi to me at school. She was a Soc. I was a greaser. We were from two completely different worlds.

"Why don't you just admit it?" I said nastily, turning to face her. "You wanted the solo just as much as the fat girl did. You don't care about my sister at all. You're just like all the other kids. You just feel sorry for Amy. Well, I'm sorry, but neither Amy nor I need your pity! Go back to where you belong-Soc." That remark really hurt Cherry, and I could tell. For a minute I wished I could take it back, but then the memory of that night at the movies surfaced in my brain again, and I wasn't sorry about what I said at all. Cherry ran down the hall, her long red hair flowing out behind her. I ran blindly in the other direction, not particularly caring about where I was going, or that I had a class I was going to be late for. I just ran and ran and ran. Finally the bell rang and the hallways cleared out. I stopped and leaned against a group of lockers. I didn't realized I was crying until my hand brushed my cheek and came away wet. I cried for a long time, just letting it all out.

And across the hall, Cherry Valance was crying, too.

A/N: Wow. That was the longest chapter I've ever written, fanfiction or otherwise. It was just over four pages. In case you're confused about the time, it takes place a few months after the beginning of the Outsiders, where they meet Cherry and Marcia. That movie night happened, but nothing else in the book has happened. So, after all that work I put into this chapter, please review!


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Still Ponyboy's POV

Amy was still drifting in and out of consciousness. It was now Wednesday. Amy had been jumped on Sunday. The three of us were home, somewhere we rarely were nowadays. We were either at school or work, or else at the hospital visiting Amy. We stayed long after visiting hours were over and came long before they began, but the nurses and doctors let it go. They could tell how close the four of us were. The whole gang knew about Amy and her prognosis, and they joined us at the hospital whenever they could. Soda was taking it real rough. I had never realized just how much he loved Amy. Thank god he had Steve. Every day at work, Soda told me, Steve would stay right close to him, to be support whenever Soda needed him. Every day the first words out of Steve's mouth when Sodapop arrived at work would be "How's the kid?" It bugged me a little that he thought of Amy and me as kids, but it touched me that he cared that much about us. The rest of the gang was taking it pretty hard, too. Two-Bit wasn't cracking jokes nearly as much as he usually did, and he was drinking so much beer that I was afraid that he was going to destroy his liver and kill himself before Amy got out of the hospital. _If_ she ever got out of the hospital. But none of us quite realized how hard Johnny was taking it.

He appeared at our door one stormy morning, right as we were starting breakfast. Darry was making eggs; I was searching for grape jelly. Soda always loved grape jelly with his eggs. Soda, at this particular moment, had his head in the icebox searching for chocolate cake. All of a sudden the door swung open and there stood Johnny, with thunder and lightning cracking behind him, a rain-soaked T-shirt, and tears rolling down his face. We didn't notice that he was crying at first; we thought it was just the rain dripping down his cheeks. But then Darry took a closer look at him.

"Johnnycake, what's wrong, buddy?" he asked in some alarm, since Johnny never bawled like that. He was used to getting roughed up; his parents beat him up almost on a daily basis. Johnny had learned to live with it over the years. It also wasn't unusual for Johnny to show up at our door in the early morning. Lots of times he couldn't take the beatings anymore, and ran away to our house. And we always had a place for him. But he never cried. The only time I had seen him cry was a few months ago, when he had gotten jumped and pretty badly beaten up. Other than that, Johnny never cried. Soda stuck his head out of the icebox and hurried over to Johnny's side, leaving the icebox open and putting an arm around Johnny's shaking shoulders.

"It's OK." Soda urged softly. "It's ok; you can tell us what happened." Johnny finally got ahold of himself and pulled out a kitchen chair to sit on. He took a long, shuddering breath and glanced from one worried face to the other. But before he could say anything, Darry deserted his place at the stove and hurried to get a dry shirt for Johnny.

"Golly, Johnny, you're soaked. Here, let me get you some dry clothes. Glory, if you're in that wet T-shirt any longer, you'll catch your death of pneumonia-" Darry stopped suddenly as he realized what he had said. _Pneumonia_ made us all think of Amy, helpless and ill, lying limply in a hospital bed. _Pneumonia_ made us think of how she might...die. Johnny started sobbing harder.

"It's about...Amy. I didn't realize just how sick she was until Two-Bit told me. Golly, I don't want her to die. She's the prettiest, smartest, nicest girl I've ever known, and there'll never be another girl like her. I...I love her." Soda nearly choked on his Pepsi, and Darry slapped him on the back. We all stood there in shocked silence for a few minutes after that, partly shocked because Johnny had actually said something, which is more than I could say for the usual Johnny Cade, and partly because of what he had said. Johnny just sat there with the tears flowing down his already wet face, looking more like a lost puppy than ever.

"You...you love her?" Soda gasped out, still choking a little. Johnny merely nodded, looking down at his feet and the wet kitchen floor.

"I've had a crush on her for awhile...but I was too scared to say anything. But I really admire Amy, you know? Being crippled and all and still turning out into an amazing girl. She's the most amazing girl I've ever met." More silence followed this admission. I just don't think we quite believed that quiet, beaten Johnny had a crush on loud, exuberant, talkative Amy.

"Well." Sodapop said finally, and for once he didn't have anything else to add except "Well.". We all just stood there, watching Johnny, who had finally stopped bawling and was wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. Darry started for the door again, having suddenly remembered that Johnny was sitting in damp clothes.

"Let me get you some dry clothes, Johnny. You can borrow some of Ponyboy's clothes." he said, trying to break the awkward silence. Soda looked distinctly uncomfortable and followed Darry out the door.

"Uh, let me help you with that, Darry..." Once they were both out the door, I took a seat next to Johnny, who looked at me with frightened, helpless eyes.

"Ponyboy, there's something I want you to know, something I didn't want to say when Darry and Sodapop were in the room. You know when I was jumped a couple months back, and they beat me up real bad?" Johnny waited for my affirmative nod before he continued. "Sodapop wasn't the first one to reach me after I got jumped. Amy was." I shook my head in confusion.

"No. No, Johnny, I was there, remember? Soda was the first one to reach you, I know he was. Amy wasn't there. Well, she was, but she didn't come 'till later, remember?"

"No, Pony. She came first." Johnny sounded so sure of himself that I searched back in my memory to that terrifying day.

FLASHBACK:

_Johnny was lying helpless and bleeding. His t-shirt was stained with blood, and his face was paler than I'd ever seen him. Darry saw the whole thing from our porch. Amy was inside, stretched out on the couch, reading a book and resting her legs. She got really bad leg cramps sometimes, 'cause her muscles were so tight. There wasn't really much she could do for them, 'cept take an aspirin and rest for awhile. She didn't really mind that much this time, since she had just gotten a new book from the library and wanted to read it._

_"Johnny's hurt. I think he got jumped." Darry said sharply, half-turning to look at Amy. She didn't act shocked or surprised, or even worried. She barely lifted her book. _

_"I know." she said quietly. But Darry didn't hear her. He was already leaping off the porch and running to help us help Johnny._

END FLASHBACK

I shook my head again. "I still don't think..." But Johnny cut me off.

"No, Pony. She reached me first."

FLASHBACK (JOHNNY'S POV):

_It was ten, maybe fifteen minutes before the rest of the gang reached me. I was lying there, too scared and hurt to move. I watched as the blood dripped silently onto my t-shirt and jeans. I was scared to death, more scared than I had ever been before. I'm used to getting hurt, my parents abuse me all the time. I'm belted every time I turn around. But it was nothing like this. The Socs had beaten me up so bad I was scared I was gonna die, and they had threatened me with nothing like my parents had ever threatened with. They left out nothing. "We're going to kill you." they had said. "We'll be back for more. You'll see. We're gonna come back for you." I lay there in the cold, shaking and shivering and trying not to bawl. And then I saw Amy. She was running towards me, in that limping, tripping way she runs and walks. Her longish blonde-brown hair swirled around her face as she walked, and I could almost see a halo over her head as she came closer. At that moment, she seemed like my angel, my savior, come to rescue me, like in those old fairy tales. Except in the old fairy tales it's always the girl that needs the rescuing, a damsel in distress. Amy slowed down as she reached me, walking slowly as to not to slip on my blood smeared across the concrete._

_"Amy..." I gasped out, absolutely sure that she had come to rescue me, fix me up, save me. "Help me..." Amy knelt down as she reached my side. I was sure she was going to help me, make everything all right. But then she looked right into my eyes, and I knew I was wrong. She wasn't going to rescue me. But why? That was something I couldn't figure out. Her green eyes were desperate, pleading, sad, and there was something I couldn't identify. Her eyes were liquid, and a few tears escaped and rolled down her cheeks as she shook her head._

_"Johnny...no...please forgive me." she whispered, letting her tears drop to the ground. I propped myself up on my elbow._

_"Forgive you...for what?" I whispered questioningly. Amy didn't answer, only sniffled and wiped the tears off her face with the back of her hand._

_"I'm so sorry, Johnny..." she whispered. I was about to ask her what that meant, demand a straight answer from her. But all of a sudden there was the sound of running footfalls._

_"Oh no, here come Ponyboy, and Soda and Steve!" she said frantically. She got up, her hands slipping a little on the slick blood. Then, she bent down and kissed me, a soft, gentle kiss on the cheek. Then she took off running, running towards the afternoon sun. She grew smaller and smaller until finally she disappeared into the cool blue sky. The little strength I had disappeared and I lay back down and waited for the gang to come rescue me instead._

END FLASHBACK

PONYBOY'S POV

"But why didn't she go for help? And why was she saying that she was sorry about something? What could she have had to be sorry about?" I asked desperately, in complete puzzlement. Johnny shook his head, just as confused as I was.

"I don't know, Ponyboy." he said slowly. "I just don't know." And we sat there, lost in thought, wondering, until Darry and Sodapop came back with the dry clothes. I didn't know much, but one thing was for sure: My twin sister had a secret. And I was going to find out what it was.

Those were the things I was thinking about a few hours later, when I visited Amy at the hospital. I was still reeling from Johnny's news about Amy.

"No." I whispered softly, leaning over to push a stray strand of hair behind Amy's ear. Her gold earrings caught the sunlight coming in from the window, and I realized for the first time that Amy actually was very pretty, although she always tried to deny it.

"I'm a fourteen year old freak, and you can play connect the dots with the pimples on my forehead." she would always say. Amy always had a great sense of humor, eve when she was trying to be serious. I could actually see why Johnny would like her. She was everything a boy might want, except for her health problems, she was perfect.

She was unconscious; like she was most times we came to the hospital. Every once in awhile she'd wake up, and ask for one of us, usually me or Sodapop, but she never stayed awake for long. She would always pass out again before we left.

"No." I whispered again. I hoped Amy could hear me. The doctors had said that even people in comas responded to human voice and contact from people they knew. So, Darry, me and Soda had all been talking to her the entire time she was in the hospital. "You can't have a secret, can you, Ames? Not Amy, my sweet, loveable little sister." Amy always hated it when I called her my _little_ sister. She would put her hands on her hips and go "I was only born a few minutes after you. Get over it." Amy never had secrets. So why did she have to start now?

"You can't have a secret. You don't have secrets. You tell me all your secrets, right, Ames? You're a horrible secret-keeper." That, at any rate, was true. Amy had always been talkative, so when she was told a secret, she tended to blurt it out to "people she could trust". Sometimes, though, those people she thought she could trust weren't so trustworthy, and she ended up breaking a friendship because she had told someone's secret, and it had ended up spreading all over the school. That had happened more than once. I had hoped that Amy had learned her lesson about keeping secrets, and telling them. Apparently, she had. This was the one time when I needed her to tell me her secret, and she was unconscious. She seemed to have learned a little _too_ well.

"Hey, Ponyboy." A soft voice broke into my thoughts. I looked over to the doorway, and there stood Cherry Valance, red hair tumbling softly down her back.

"What are _you_ doing here?" I asked coldly. My words came out a little harsher than I meant them to. Cherry looked back at me just as coldly.

"I came to see Amy. What did you think?" I blushed hotly. Of course she was here to see Amy. This was, after all, Amy's hospital room. Cherry pulled over one of those plastic hospital chairs, and I winced at the squeaking sound it made as she dragged it across the floor.

"So...how is she?" Cherry asked quietly, trying to ease the tension between us after what had happened yesterday. I merely shrugged. Finally Cherry couldn't take it anymore.

"Ponyboy, what do you want me to say?" she burst out in a voice full of emotion. "That I'm sorry about what I said to you that day at the movies? That I'm sorry for being a Soc?" Her voice cracked and she started crying again, just like she had yesterday. I stared at her for a few minutes.

"No." I finally said, trying to work out my own emotions. "No. I just want you to notice me. To change this stupid cycle of being separated, classified as Greaser and Soc. I want things to change. Everything. I wish I could turn back time, make it so we hung out, make it so Amy never got sick, or that I stopped her from going to the park that night. I just want things to change."

"I want things to change, too, Ponyboy." Cherry said softly. "I want to make people realize that us Socs aren't all bad, that we're good kids who sometimes make stupid decisions. That we're not all snotty rich kids, that we're actually nice sometimes. I want to break the stereotypes." We sat there in silence until Cherry had to leave. We just sat there, staring into space, wanting things to change for the better. A Soc and a greaser, breaking the stereotypes together.

A/N: Well that was slightly longer than the last chapter, even. I'm breaking chapter length records all over the place. R&R!


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Bob is still alive. As I said before, only the beginning of the Outsiders with the drive-in movie and Cherry and Marcia happened. Nothing else.

Chapter 6

Just as we thought Amy was getting better, she got worse. Her fever, which had been down to around 101 degrees the past few days, suddenly shot up to 104 degrees, and she was no longer coherent when she was conscious, which wasn't very often. Darry, me and Soda all took turns sitting at her bedside, wiping her forehead with a cool cloth and soothing her when she had wild fever dreams. She screamed and cried out in her sleep. It hurt me to think that my perky twin sister was scared, and I knew she was scared. I didn't know if she remembered where she was or why she was there, and I had no way of making the wild, terrifying nightmares she had stop. I felt horrible. After all, I was her older brother, if only by a few minutes. Older brothers are supposed to soothe you, assure you everything's alright, check for monsters under your bed, like Darry and Sodapop did for me when I was littler. I couldn't make this monster go away. This monster was inside my helpless sister, and I was powerless to stop it. We could only sit by her side and wait patiently; praying that the antibiotics the doctors pumped into Amy would work, and try not to think about what would happen if they didn't. There were no more visiting hours, at least not for us. We came whenever we had a moment's spare time, and stayed until we had a previous engagement to go to that we couldn't worm our way out of.

It was one of those days. I was the only one visiting Amy at the moment, Darry and Sodapop both had to work. Both their bosses had said that they didn't have to come to work if they didn't feel like it, seeing as Amy was so sick. But I knew that both of them wanted to work. Darry and Soda both knew that their money was the only thing holding our family together, and stopping the state from splitting us up and sending me and Sodapop to boys' homes. Also, I think that both of them needed to work, in a sense, with things being so tough for us right now. Darry threw himself into his work, tried to bury the pain he was feeling under all those bundles of roofing. Soda couldn't hide his pain, he wasn't too good at that like Darry was. But at work, he could spill the pain; share it with someone else, namely Steve. Steve was Soda's best buddy, and he was a good listener. He would just stand there silently, absorbing all Soda's pain, never speaking unless he sensed that Soda needed some moral support. Then he would wrap his arms around Soda, let Soda cry into his shoulder, maybe throw in an encouraging word or two. And Soda needed that support. I don't think he could have gotten through this without Steve. Serious reality doesn't get through to Soda often, but when it does, it hits him real hard. This was one of those times when reality had hit him so hard that he was no longer the happy-go-lucky teenager that he usually is. Instead, he was a lost, confused, wandering kid who needed someone to turn to. That someone just happened to be Steve. Sometimes he would confide in me, when we were alone together in our bedroom at night. But usually it was Steve.

I sat thinking this over, glancing every so often at my watch. Soda had told me to meet him at the DX where he worked. He had been asking me to do that a lot lately. I think we all grew closer when Amy was lying in the hospital, fighting for her life. We all talked a lot more to each other, and I realized that Darry really did love me, that sometimes he had to be a little harsh with me in order to protect me. I think the reason we all grew closer was that we realized that we might lose Amy before we ever really got close to her, and we wanted to make sure that we didn't make the same mistake with any other member of our family. Anyway, I was supposed to meet Soda at the DX at 1:00, and it was about a quarter to twelve. I got up and started to pull on my jacket. It would take me about ten minutes to walk to the DX. It wasn't really winter, but it wasn't quite spring yet, either. You know that month and a half or so around March and April where the weather switches back and forth? On this particular day, it was cool out, so Darry had made me wear a light jacket. Ever since Amy got into the hospital he's been a lot more protective, but I don't mind. I know it's just because he loves me so much that he doesn't want me to get hurt. I turned to leave, but just then I heard wild screaming coming from Amy's bed.

"Noo! Bob, don't do this! Don't do this! No...I'll do it. I'll do whatever you want!" Amy yelled. Her eyes snapped open, and they were unseeing, bright with fever. Amy thrashed wildly in bed, kicking and screaming, trying to rid herself of the unseen danger. Her screaming was no longer words, just incoherent screams as she struggled. I whirled around and dropped to my knees by her bed.

"Shh...Ames, it's OK. It's OK, no one's gonna hurt you. I'm here, no one's gonna hurt you. I'm here...it's OK." I stroked her pale skin, feeling the heat under my hand. Her screaming subsided and drifted off into indistinguishable muttering. It was a few minutes later that her words caught up with me. _Bob_...wasn't the Soc that was Cherry Valance's boyfriend? That big dude who had all the rings on his hand...wasn't that Bob? Then I remembered that Bob was the Soc who had jumped Johnny, and cut him up so bad with those rings. Bob was the Soc that had scared Johnny half to death. But what did he have to do with Amy? That was something I resolved to find out. Finally Amy fell back to sleep, her breathing irregular and raggedy. I walked to the DX lost in thought.

Soda took one look at my face and knew something was wrong. "Pony, come here for a sec." He pulled me aside and pointed down at the front of a red Corvette that was awaiting an oil change. "Sit." I sat.

"OK, Ponyboy, I know something's bothering you. Spill." I took a deep breath, trying to sort through all this. It wasn't easy. All the sleepless nights lying awake worrying about Amy, all the days sitting by her hospital bed, they started to catch up with me. I was dog tired. I pulled out a weed to steady my nerves and took a long, shaky drag on it.

"Well, it all started the other day with Johnny..." I started, and I launched into the story of how Amy had reached Johnny's side when he got jumped, and how she had made no move to help him. I told Sodapop how she had cried, kneeling by Johnny's side, and how she had told him that she was sorry for something. Then I filled Soda in on what Amy had screamed in her feverish dream back at the hospital, and how I had made the connection with Johnny's jumping. When I finished, Soda gave me a long look. I knew he was worried.

"But it could be nothing, right?" I asked quickly. I didn't like the look on Sodapop's face. I didn't want him to worry over something that I had said, just because I was being paranoid. "I'm probably just being paranoid, right, Soda? It's nothing. Just a coincidence. Forget I even said it." Soda continued looking at me in that thoughtful way. It was starting to creep me out. Soda never looked at me like that, it was always Darry that had the serious looks. Soda was the one who was bubbly and fun and who often told me that I worried too much. I was hoping that today wouldn't be an exception. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

"I don't like the sound of this." he said slowly. "Amy's hiding something, and it's something big, maybe even something dangerous. I don't think it's just a coincidence that she was dreaming about the Soc who beat Johnny up." I was still trying hard to take back what I said, because I didn't want Soda to worry for no reason.

"But remember, Bob is Cherry Valance's boyfriend. He stopped me and Johnny and Dally that night at the movies, remember? I told Amy all about what happened that night. She could be subconsciously thinking about that, or something, right?" I persisted feebly. I knew I was grasping for straws. But I really didn't want to worry Soda. I was wishing I hadn't said anything.

"Nah." he said finally. "I don't think that's it. Something's goin' on." I had to agree with him. As much as I didn't want Sodapop to worry, my instincts told me that something big was going on with my twin sister.

"Now since we can't get anything out of Amy while she's this sick..." Soda continued slowly, trying to work things out in his mind. "We need to find the next best person. Who does she confide everything to, besides you?" The two of us sat lost in thought for a minute. Then, suddenly I had a flash of insight. I snapped my fingers triumphantly.

"I got it!" I cried. "Kiera!" Kiera Sanders was Amy's best buddy, and only girl friend. Kiera and Amy had bonded the first day of school, when they'd figured out that they both had CP. Kiera's CP was a little more severe than Amy's though, and she used a manual wheelchair almost all the time.

"Brilliant, Pony!" Soda praised me. "Shit, no wonder they've got you in the smart classes." Someone yelled from the front of the station, and Soda stopped talking.

"Hold your horses, I'm coming!" Then he turned to me. "Look, Pony, I gotta go, my break's over. Walk home, but _be careful_! The Socs have already jumped one Curtis lately, they ain't gonna be able to resist if another one walks right under their noses. If you see Two-Bit or Dally, ask them for a ride, you dig?" I nodded. Then Soda bent down and wrapped me in a hug. "We'll go see Kiera tomorrow." I nodded again and watched as Soda started fixing up an old Mustang. He didn't notice me. Finally I tore myself out of my thoughts and started to walk home, keeping an eye out for Two-Bit or Dallas. On the way home, I passed the vacant lot where Johnny spent most of his time, when he wasn't at our house. I stopped for a minute and wondered if Johnnycake was in there now. It was getting kind of cold, with a light breeze. I knew Johnny would probably have no jacket, only a t-shirt and jeans. He would probably be cold. I decided to make a small detour to see if Johnny was there. Sure enough, he was.

"Hey, Johnny." I said as I sat down next to him on the cold ground. Johnny barely looked up. "Hey Ponyboy." Johnny was sitting on the concrete, with his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped around his legs. We sat in silence for a minute, just enjoying each other's company. Suddenly, I got an idea.

"Hey, Johnny, wanna come with me and Soda to visit Kiera tomorrow?" Johnny knew Kiera, 'cause Kiera spent almost as much time at our house as he did. I explained the whole situation with Amy and Bob to Johnny, whose eyes slowly got wider and wider, and his face slowly got paler and paler.

"I don't want to talk about Bob." he whispered softly. I knew he was still scared to death of Bob. Even mentioning Bob, or the night when Johnny was jumped sent Johnny into a terrified panic. I ruffled his greasy black hair affectionately.

"Aw, Johnnycake, it's not gonna be that bad. Soda's gonna be there, too. He won't let anyone hurt you, Johnny. It's gonna be OK." Johnny sat up a little straighter. I knew he knew that Sodapop wouldn't let anything happen to him. Besides, we weren't even talking to Bob himself, just talking _about_ him. Johnny was silent for a few minutes, lost in a battle between his desire to do something for Amy, and his terror at anything connected with Bob.

"Alright." he said finally in a small voice. "I'll go. But only 'cause I love Amy so much." I grinned. I knew then how much he really did love my sister. He had needlessly put Amy first, ahead of his own fears. And he really did have a reason to be scared of Bob, it wasn't some silly, irrational fear. Bob had hurt him real bad and threatened him even worse. But Johnny loved Amy so much that he would do anything for her, even if it meant confronting his fears. That was when I realized that Johnny was on the way to conquering his terror of getting jumped again. He wasn't quite there yet, but he was close, real close. We sat there under the sunset sky for a few minutes before I realized that it was almost 8:00, and I'd better be getting home.

"If you get cold, come on over to our place, dig Johnny? I don't want you getting sick." Johnny nodded, and I chuckled to myself, thinking about how much I had sounded like Darry just then. I walked home in silence, thinking back over the day's events. I went straight up to my room. I couldn't wait to tell Soda that Johnny was coming with us to see Kiera tomorrow. Sodapop was sprawled out on our bed, reading a comic book. He looked up and grinned.

"Hey, Pony, where ya been?" I sat down hard near his legs, making the bed bounce a little.

"I was at the vacant lot with Johnny. He's gonna come with us to see Kiera tomorrow." Soda slowly propped himself on his elbow and twisted around to look at me with a mixture of shock and astonishment. The comic book lay open and forgotten on the bed.

"_Johnny_? But...it's about Bob! I figured he wouldn't want to go. He's terrified of Bob, any mention of him!"

"I know." I replied. "I couldn't believe it either. But he said he was only going 'cause he loves Amy so much. He really loves her, Soda." Soda shook his head slowly, a grin spreading across his face.

"Golly, Ponyboy, he really does love her." The smile disappeared. "But is he strong enough to handle what might happen to her?" I didn't really have an answer for that. How could I be sure if Johnny was strong enough to deal with Amy's possible death if I wasn't sure if I was strong enough, either? I tried not to think about the possibilities too often, but they came back to haunt me all too much. Every time I visited Amy, saw her tossing and turning in bed, flushed with fever, the little voice in the back of my head said _This might be the last time you see her. She might not make it through this._ I wasn't sure if _I_ was strong enough to handle that if it happened, let alone if Johnny was strong enough. As a matter of fact, were any of us really prepared for the possibilities? Even Darry, who pretended to be so cool and tough, was he strong enough to handle the death of his precious little sister? He barely kept his sanity when Mom and Dad died. Would he lose it if Amy died, too? Just then I thought of something.

"Hey, Soda?"

"Hmmm?" came the response. Soda was lost in the pages of his comic book.

"Soda, don't tell Darry what we're gonna do tomorrow. I don't want him to know. He probably wouldn't want us messin' with things, you dig?"

"Mmhmm...dig." Soda stretched and yawned. "I think I'm gonna turn out the light now, ok Pony? 'Night."

"'Night Soda." Soda turned the light off and I fell asleep wondering what we might find out from Kiera the next day.

The next day came all too soon. Soda and I got up early and waited for Johnny, who was supposed to meet us at our house. Johnny came right on time, and we waited while Sodapop scribbled a quick note for Darry. _Went to take a walk, be back soon. Soda and Pony._ Then we set off looking for Kiera. We had decided to look at Kiera's house first, since that was where she usually was when she wasn't hanging out with Amy. Kiera was a good kid. She had a good family life, unlike most of the greasers around here. Her parents were great, especially her mother. Mrs. Sanders was the sweetest, kindest, most understanding mother I've ever met, 'cept for maybe my own mother, when she was alive. The one fault with Mrs. Sanders was that she was an alarmist. Kiera was constantly falling out of her chair, banging into walls, and so on. Each time Kiera got scraped, her own mother would almost have a heart attack from worry. Kiera's been to the hospital more times than the whole rest of the gang put together. So, each time she gets herself into a scrape, she just comes to our house and Darry and Sodapop fix her up.

As it turned out, we didn't need to go to Kiera's house at all. We found her halfway there, wheeling herself through the streets. "Kiera!" Soda proclaimed happily. "We were just looking for you!" Johnny stayed quiet. He's not good around girls, even girls he knows pretty well like Kiera.

"Hey guys!" Kiera grinned. "What's up? How's Amy?" The three of us exchanged glances.

"Amy's...holding her own." I answered. "She's still real sick, though. Actually..." I looked at Soda, who gave me a small nod of approval. "Actually, Amy was sort of what we wanted to talk to you about." Kiera looked concerned.

"What is it?" she questioned. Sodapop glanced around and shook his head.

"Not here. Let's go to the park where we can talk in private." Kiera didn't question the secrecy, but instead led the way to the park, wheeling her chair so fast that the rest of us had to jog to keep up with her. Once there, she let go of her wheels and coasted a few feet before coming to a smooth halt in the grass. I gulped and stared at the grass below my feet. We were right next to the fountain. This was where Two-Bit had found Amy, feverish and wet, almost two weeks ago. I searched the ground for some outward sign, a clue as to what might have happened that evening, even a drop of Amy's blood on the soft green grass. There was nothing. It was almost as if nothing had ever happened, and to most people who stopped in this spot, nothing had. Nobody cared about Amy. Nobody, but the four people present, and Darry, Dallas and Two-Bit. That was it. People would pass by, picnic in this spot, unaware of what had happened at that very spot to a young girl, disabled but full of life. Life would go on, and everybody would forget about the little crippled girl who got jumped by Socs and might have caught her death of pneumonia. Everybody would forget...except us.

Kiera finally turned herself around to look at the three of us with an expression that said _I'm waiting. Spill._ But all she said was "All right, you guys. What's with this _talk in private_ business? What's the deal?" Johnny and I looked at each other, and then at Soda. Sodapop seemed to accept that he was the one to tell Kiera all this, and cleared his throat.

"Weell...we think that Amy's keeping a secret from us." And he launched into the whole story. I watched Kiera's face carefully as he talked, watching for some sign that she knew Amy's secret. But her face remained expressionless. Either she had no clue what we were talking about, or she was good at hiding her emotions. Very good.

"And so we figured since you're Amy's best friend, you might know what she is hiding..." Soda's voice trailed off and he looked at Kiera pleadingly, almost like a dog begging for food. Slowly, Kiera's calm face faded away, until I could see the emotion she was hiding underneath. There was panic, that was definitely there. There was also anger, sadness, and resignation. Kiera knew it was all over, that we had backed her into a corner. She had to spill what she knew. Still, she made a last-ditch effort to get herself out of this mess.

"I don't know if I should tell you guys..." she said slowly. Sodapop shifted position sitting on the edge of the fountain, and I knew he was resisting the impulse to reach out and shake Kiera by the shoulders. We needed to know this.

"Kiera. She's our _sister_. And this secret could be dangerous for her. You need to tell us. Please." Kiera sighed. She had been afraid of this.

"Amy's gonna kill me for this..." she muttered but nevertheless started, bit by bit, to unfold the secret that Amy had been keeping for months.

Amy had secretly been dating Bob. Not by choice, mind you, but he had threatened her with everything under the sun. Why he wanted to date Amy, of all people, that part was still a mystery, and why he wanted her so badly was also unknown. But he scared her into dating him.

"But I thought he was dating Cherry Valance." I interrupted at this point. Kiera shook her head.

"He was. But he was cheating on Cherry, by going out with Amy at the same time. Not surprising, the scum that he is. So he threatened Amy with...basically everything. And she got scared enough to buy into his threats, and go out with him. She was never really good at standing up to people." That was true. Amy may act cool and tough, but in reality she gave into peer pressure a lot. If it wasn't for Darry and Soda and me protecting her, she would've done something very destructive by now. I suddenly realized that Kiera was talking again.

"They had only been dating for a few weeks when Bob told Amy that he was gonna go out and jump 'one of her greasy friends' as he put it. He was drunk, of course. She knew it was going to be one of her friends, one of the gang. She wasn't expecting it to be Johnny. After all, he hadn't done anything to Bob. He barely even spoke most of the time. She wasn't even sure that Bob knew who Johnny was. But she changed her mind the night Bob jumped Johnny." I looked over at Johnny to see if he minded that we were talking about him like he wasn't here. His face was awful pale, and his breath was coming in short gasps. His eyes were closed. I knew that he, like the rest of us, was reliving that awful night when he had gotten jumped. Kiera paused a minute and then went on.

"She watched helplessly as Bob beat up Johnny. She wanted to stand up to him, help Johnny, and do _something_. But she was too scared of Bob and the threats he had made. As I understand it, he threatened to kill Amy if she interfered with his plans. And that included helping Johnny once he had gotten jumped. And to make sure that Amy didn't go back on her word, he sat in his car with his cronies just outside the park. There was no way Amy could get past them. The only reason she was able to talk to Johnny was that she had convinced Bob that she wouldn't try and help Johnny if he'd just let her talk to him. She wanted to tell Johnny that she was sorry for not helping him. But she couldn't tell him the reason why she didn't do anything, because Bob was watching her from the edge of the park. He could easily overhear what she was saying." Kiera's voice trembled a little as she went on.

"He...he beat her up something awful, guys. He was mad at her for two reasons: one-that she told Johnny that she was sorry. Bob wanted his girlfriends to be as cold and unfeeling as him, I guess. The other reason was that he somehow found out that Amy had told me that she was being forced into dating him. You know those leg cramps that Amy had that day?" I remembered well. She had complained of leg cramps all that night, and neither a book nor TV distracted her, like they usually did when she got leg cramps. "Yeah, those weren't leg cramps. Those were the throbbing of the bruises that Bob left on Amy. He basically tossed her around like a rag doll, which was pretty easy with her balance and all. He pushed her down; stomped on her, hit her multiple times. It's a wonder she didn't break any bones, just sprained her right ankle." I suddenly remembered Amy limping around that night, crying from the pain. Darry had tried to ask her what was wrong, but she wouldn't tell him. Eventually Darry had wrapped up the ankle best he could and asked no more questions.

"Well, why the hell didn't she tell us?" Soda demanded, his eyes full of fury. Soda doesn't get mad very often, but when he does, there's absolutely no stopping him. And the one thing that was guaranteed to make him mad was the mistreatment of his younger siblings. Kiera shook her head sadly. Sodapop was so predictable. She had known from the beginning that this question would be asked, and she had known that it would be Soda who asked it.

"There were a lot of reasons, Soda. She didn't want to tell Darry, because she didn't want him getting all protective and lecturing her about not giving into peer pressure, which she had heard a million times and wouldn't do her any good with Bob. She didn't want to tell you, Soda, because she knew that you would either tell Darry, or go out and hunt Bob down. She didn't want any of you to get hurt. She had seen how nasty Bob could be. And Ponyboy. Oh, Pony, she wanted to tell you so badly, and she almost did, many times. She knew that you loved her so much; she didn't think it was fair to keep a secret from you, Pony, especially because _you_ told _her_ all your secrets. She thought you had a right to know. She really was on the verge of telling you the night Johnny got jumped, you know. But then she saw how mad Bob got when he found out that Amy had told _me_, she couldn't imagine his fury if she told a family member. So she kept her mouth shut; for her sake and for her brothers." Tears filled my eyes as I realized how much pain, both physical and emotional, Amy had gone through to protect us, even though we were the ones supposed to be protecting her, us being the big brothers and all. God, she sure did love us.

"So what happened?" Johnny's timid voice cut into my thoughts. "Like, are they still dating? _Were _they still dating, I mean, before Amy got sick? Was he still hurting her?" I sat up in surprise. Usually Johnny's silent to the bone. Kiera gave a theatrical sigh. She sure was dramatic. I had told her many times that she should go into acting. But she always told me that the acting industry would never want a wheelchair-bound cripple like her. That was probably true. Disabled people weren't widely accepted in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Maybe in some other part of America, but not in Tulsa.

"Ah, that's where our story ends." Kiera sighed dramatically. "See, Amy finally got the guts to stand up to Bob. She told him he was the most hateful person in the world and she hated his guts. She said, and I quote: 'I'm not afraid of your threats anymore. You're not the boss of me.' He hit her so hard that she was knocked out for a few minutes. When she came to, he wasn't there. So she ran home, and she still didn't tell anyone what Bob was doing to her. When she went to the park later that night, a few of Bob's cronies caught up with her. She was too weak and sick to resist them, and they plunged her into the fountain. My best friend's dying, all because of that scum!" Her voice rose on the last note and she broke into tears. She wasn't the only one. Me and Soda were both crying, too. Johnny said nothing, only looked scared to death. I don't know if he was scared of Bob, hearing about what he did to Amy and all, or if he was just scared thinking about what happened to her. Because he really did love her, I had figured that out by now. The only question was, did she love him back? I thought so, hearing what Kiera had to say and sorting it out in my mind. I think we all were more confused now that we knew the whole story than we were when we just knew that Amy was keeping a secret. Finally, Soda swiped at his eyes with the back of his hands and started to calm down.

"I'm gonna kill that Bob, that slimy Soc." he breathed. "I'm gonna kill him for what he did to my sister."

A/N: Wow that was about 7 ½ pages, more than ever. Sorry for the long while before I updated, I wasn't quite sure where I was going with this. Never break off a chapter without a plan in your head for the next one. Now I've added Kiera into the mix...don't you just love that name, Kiera? Anyway, since this chapter took the better part of three days to complete, you better review!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I woke up the next morning to the sun shining brightly in my eyes. I groaned and rolled over, trying to block the sun out. Cursing under my breath because the sun was so damn bright, I reluctantly waited for Amy to do her usual wake-up-Ponyboy-by-sitting-on-him routine. After a few minutes when I didn't feel her weight on my legs, I opened one eye and squinted blearily across the room at her bed. The bed was empty, with the sheets messed up and the blankets on the floor. _Ames must've gotten up already. _I thought sleepily. _God, she's an early riser._ I listened carefully to the sounds downstairs. That was weird...I didn't hear Amy's loud, cheery, high voice. Amy has a very loud voice because the CP makes her have trouble controlling the volume of her voice. Many times when we're out in public, Darry has had to tell her to keep her voice down. And when she gets excited, her voice gets higher and louder. Usually in the mornings when she gets up before me, I can hear her voice, and even what she's saying, over Darry and Sodapop's voices. This morning, I heard Darry's low rumble, and Soda's excited tenor voice. But no Amy. _Where is she?_ I wondered. My mind was still half-asleep. Then I rolled over again, this time right onto the floor. The hard jolt and thump woke me up, and the horrible events of the past two and a half weeks came rushing back to me in one stomach-sinking swoop. Amy was in the hospital, seriously ill. She might not live to see fifteen. Then I remembered our visit to Kiera yesterday, and what she had revealed. _Bob had hurt Amy. We were going to get revenge today._ Well, maybe not revenge, Darry would kill us if we got into trouble with the fuzz. But we were going to get some answers, and maybe a glimpse into the mind of Bob Sheldon. I nimbly climbed out of my tangle of blankets and headed downstairs.

"Mornin' Ponyboy." Soda said cheerfully, helping himself to a second helping of eggs, and unleashing a huge spoonful of grape jelly on them. Darry, however, turned at Soda's greeting and stared at me, a spatula in his hand. From the look on his face, I knew that Sodapop had told him everything that had happened with Kiera yesterday. I sat down at the table, and helped myself to some eggs and bacon, waiting anxiously for the lecture that Darry was sure to deliver.

"Pony..." he started seriously. "I heard about what happened with Kiera yesterday, and I'm not sure you two should get involved in this. I don't want you getting hurt." I knew that Darry was only trying to protect his "kid brothers" but he was pissing me off. Why didn't he just leave us to what we thought was right? I may not use my head sometimes, but Soda's a smart kid. _He's_ got common sense. Why couldn't Darry remember that Soda wouldn't let anything happen to me _or_ him?

"Darry..." Soda started warningly. I could tell he was just as annoyed as I was by Darry's over protectiveness. But not out and out mad. Soda only gets mad if there's something real big going on. Such as Bob beating up our fragile little sister. _Fragile_-I almost laughed out loud at my thoughts. Amy wasn't fragile, at least not mentally. She was as _not_ fragile as it was possible to be. She was the smartest person I knew, and she knew what was right and what was wrong-most of the time anyway. Unfortunately, she was so desperate to have more friends that she got herself into trouble a lot of times-making friends with the wrong crowd and all. But I knew she would never do something real dangerous, like getting into a car with a drunk driver, or smoking a pack a day like I do. She's been telling me for years that I should quit smoking, that if you quit before you're twenty you have a better chance of it having no bad health effects on you. Amy's always coming out with weird facts like that; I don't know where she finds out these things. Maybe 'cause she reads so much.

"I'm serious!" Darry said indignantly. "Aside from the fact that I love you two too much to let anything happen to you, if the Social Services people see you getting into dangerous things, they could take you guys away from me, and put you in boys' homes. Now, you wouldn't want that, would you?"

"No..." Soda and I muttered in unison. And we were telling the truth. The three of us loved each other more than anyone and anything else in the world. The thought of being separated, especially at such a crucial time, was unbearable.

"So?" Darry prompted. "Promise me that you two won't go anywhere _near_ Bob, dig?"

"Dig..." Soda muttered quietly. I could almost see him wrestling in his mind with his desire to kick Bob's ass for what he did to Amy. I didn't blame him. I wanted to do the same thing myself. But I knew Darry was right; we could get seriously hurt by Bob. If he had beaten up Amy that badly, what would he do to Amy's brothers?

"Pony?" Darry turned to me. I forced myself to sound calm.

"Dig..." My voice trailed off as our front door banged and Johnny walked in. He had a fresh bruise on his cheek from his father's latest beating. Johnny pulled out a kitchen chair and flopped ungracefully into it.

"Hey, Johnnycake, what's up?" Soda asked cheerfully; glad to have an excuse for Darry to stop badgering us. Johnny gave a small shrug and began wolfing down the plate of bacon that still remained on the table. Darry and Soda and I watched in amazement.

"Glory, Johnny, don't they ever feed you at your house?" Darry asked in amazement. Johnny made an indistinct noise and shook his head.

"Naw." he said through a mouthful of bacon. "Mom's too drunk to fix meals half the time and Dad doesn't care much for food. He likes beating me instead. I'm his breakfast." Darry stared at the phenomenal amount of food this skinny sixteen-year old kid was eating, and then his eyes slid to the icebox, which was nearly empty.

"Glory, kid, you eat more food than Sodapop and Ponyboy put together." he said in amazement. I knew he was worried about paying for more food. We've had it real rough financially since Mom and Dad died. I don't think Darry quite realized that he had to pay the bills by a certain date; as illustrated by the first time, a month after Mom and Dad died; the electrical company shut off our electricity. We had to go almost two weeks without lights, TV, or refrigeration until Darry scraped up enough money to pay the electric bill. I don't know where he got the money. I suspect Two-Bit's mom gave him most of it. Since then, Darry's been real careful about money, but it's hard when you have a twenty-year old boy, a teenage girl, and two teenage boys living in the same house. I mean, I eat a lot, and Soda does too. Amy eats like a horse, and yet she still stays skinny. It's amazing. And on top of that, we have Johnny, Steve, Two-Bit and Dally coming over to the house almost every day, eating our food, watching our TV, and smoking our cigarettes. That costs a lot of money, and I know Darry's worried that if he doesn't keep up with the bills and provide a "stable financial situation" as the social worker put it, for us, that me and Soda, and Amy will get taken away from him. And as I said before, that would be...intolerable.

"I think there's another box of cereal downstairs." Sodapop offered. He knows that being a parent at twenty years old is hard on Darry, and tries to help him out whenever he can, although I know that Soda's a kid at heart. He reminds me a little bit of an over-eager little kid, wanting to help out so badly, but yet somehow messing things up more. He doesn't mean to. Soda's got a good heart. Darry nodded wordlessly and hurried downstairs. Once he was out of earshot, Soda turned to me and said in a low, hurried voice.

"Pony, we _have_ to go talk to Bob. It's the only way we'll ever find out how bad he hurt her." From the tone of Soda's voice, and the way his eyes had suddenly turned stormy, I had a bad feeling that this "talk" was going to include fists.

"But Soda, Darry's gonna kill us..." My voice trailed off. I sounded like a goddamn little kid who was a little tattletale. I remembered when me and Amy were three and four years old, how it was this whole big thing to "tattle" to a teacher, or a parent, or another "big kid" as we always called the kids who _looked_ like giants to us, but in reality were only eight or nine. Soda was always a big kid, but he hung out with us little kids. Hell, he acted like a four year old himself. Darry always hung out with the older kids, trying to act cool but not quite pulling it off. In reality, I think we all would've been better off hanging out with our own age groups.

"I don't care if I get yelled at. And you know Darry would never hurt us physically." He had a good point there. The worst Darry could do was yell at us, maybe take away some TV time. That was about it. Darry hadn't physically hurt us since...ever. That was Dally's job, although he never really hurt any of the gang. He only hurt people who he thought deserved it. I smiled as I remembered one time when he had beat up a kid for bullying Amy.

Flashback:

_It was around when me and Ames were in the first grade, 'round mid April. The weather was finally starting to clear up, and we were able to go outside at recess again. The kids ran around and climbed all over the large playground, played kickball on the spacious blacktop. And Amy was in the thick of it all, running and tripping, skinning her knees on a regular basis. She loved recess, even though she couldn't do many of the things the other kids could do. She was happy just being a kid._

_It was by the playground that it happened. Amy was hanging onto the monkey bars for dear life, too scared to move forward, yet not having the coordination to move backwards. One of the bigger kids, a third-grader, I think, leaned over and smirked at my frightened sister._

_"Hey, cripple!" he taunted. "What's the matter, you scared? Aw, you're a little cripple BABY!" And with that, he leaned over and gave Amy a mighty shove. Unable to hold on, Amy's fingers slipped, fumbling frantically for something to hold onto. She landed the wrong way on her ankle and began crying loudly. Dally, who had been watching from the other side of the playground, sprinted over._

_"Hey!" he yelled at the bully. "Don't hurt Amy! She's my friend!" And with that, he swung a mighty punch at the kid. It hit him right in the face. That kid had a black eye for a week. The bully scampered quickly. Everyone was afraid of Dallas Winston, the big, mean fourth grader. Even the fifth and sixth graders knew not to mess with Dally. He was dangerous. Once he had made sure that the bully had run for his life, Dally knelt down beside Amy, a concerned look on his face._

_"You okay, Ames?" he asked, in a warm, caring tone of voice that he only used for people he really cared about. Amy whimpered and shook her head. Tears were still rolling down her cheeks. Dally gently pulled Amy to her feet, by which time me and Soda had run over. Darry wasn't in our school that year, he had just graduated the previous year to the junior high/high school. Instead of being a big-shot sixth grader, he was a tiny little seventh-grader. The three of us crowded around Amy, letting her lean on our shoulders as we escorted her to the nurse's office. As we made our way awkwardly across the blacktop, Amy looked at Dallas, her eyes filled with pain._

_"Dally?" she said softly. We stopped as Dally turned to look at Amy. "Yeah?"_

_"Thanks for hurting that kid." Dallas gave Amy one of his rare smiles. "No problem, kid."_

"Ponyboy?" Sodapop's voice cut into my thoughts. "Pony?" I tore myself out of my memories and looked up.

"Sorry, Soda. I wasn't paying attention. What did you say?" Soda shook his head in exasperation.

"Glory, Pony, your head's always in the clouds." He grinned good-naturedly and helped himself to the one remaining piece of bacon before continuing.

"Anyway, Pony, so we've got to talk to Bob. I want to find out what he did our sister. You can either come with me or not. Your choice." Sodapop leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and stared at me, obviously waiting for my decision. I threw my hands up in exasperation.

"Fine. I'll go." Soda grinned. He had known that I would come. Then, simultaneously, we looked at Johnny, who had gotten up during my daydreaming. He was now rummaging in the icebox for more food, as he had reduced the plate of bacon to a plate of greasy crumbs.

"Johnnycake...ya wanna come with us today? Ya know, for Amy?" Johnny took his head out of the icebox and looked at us. His eyes were like two saucers, they were so big, and his face was pale. He was trembling. But he straightened himself up and said definitely,

"Yeah...I'll come. For Amy." I was moved by the awesome amount of love for my little sister Johnny was showing. This was coming face-to-face with his attacker, and Amy's attacker, who might quite possibly hurt him again. Bob was dangerous, and I wouldn't have blamed Johnny if he backed out. But he didn't. Johnny was conquering his fear...all for Amy. _Good god, _I thought as I heard Darry come back up the stairs, _I sure hope that if Amy pulls through this that she likes him as much as he likes her. Otherwise, our house just might turn into Heartbreak Hotel. _Sodapop opened his mouth to say something, perhaps to express his own amazement that Johnny had the courage to come face-to-face with Bob again, when Darry appeared in the doorway holding the last box of cornflakes.

"Here you go, Johnnycake." he said softly, plopping the cereal box down on the table. "Eat as much as you like. You need to get some meat on those bones." Johnny was almost a skeleton, he was so skinny. No wonder he ate half our food when he was over here. The phone rang shrilly, and I jumped, lost in my thoughts. Soda laughed when he saw me jump.

"Glory, Pony, you're as jumpy as a cat these days. Usually it's Amy who jumps." The phone rang again, and Darry snatched it up before it could ring again.

"Oh, hi, Mr. Hamerito!" Mr. Hamerito is Darry's boss at the roofing company. "You need me in today? Mhmm...double pay? I'll be right there." Usually Darry gets the day off on Sunday, but today, apparently the company was extremely busy and they needed Darry to lend a hand.

"This is _perfect_!" Soda whispered gleefully to me as Darry hung up the phone. "This way we won't have to sneak past Darry to get out of the house. We can go and be back before Darry comes home. Golly, Pony, luck is sure on our side." I smiled weakly. I still wasn't convinced that we should do this.

"Yeah. We're sure lucky." I echoed feebly. Sodapop didn't seem to notice that I was having second thoughts. He was watching Darry shrug into his jacket.

"Now I gotta go to work, guys. Don't go doing dangerous stunts, now." he warned. Soda and I nodded obediently, but inside I had a sinking feeling that going to talk to the guy who had beat up our sister fell into the category of "dangerous stunts". Darry must have noticed the guilty look on my face.

"Or do I have to call Two-Bit or Dally to come baby-sit you guys like babies?" Soda shook his head.

"No, no." he said quickly. "We're fine here. Honest. _Right_, Ponyboy?" Soda poked me hard in the ribs.

"Ow! Yeah...yeah, just fine." Johnny stifled his laughter in his cereal bowl. Apparently, we had Darry fooled, because he dropped the subject and headed out the door.

"I'll be back around six." he called over his shoulder as the door slammed behind him. Soda scampered to the window to watch Darry drive away. As soon as his car was out of sight, he looked at me and Johnny with that excited, boyish look on his face.

"Come on, let's go!" He dragged me to the door, while Johnny trailed along behind. I was still reluctant to do this. I just had a bad feeling about the whole thing, plus lying to Darry made me uncomfortable. I knew we shouldn't do this. Ha, and Darry says I have no common sense.

"And do we...do we know where Bob is?" Johnny asked, speaking for the first time since we had left the house. His voice was unnaturally high, and his eyes were popping. I knew he was terrified of facing Bob, and was probably half-hoping Soda would have no clue where to find him. Unfortunately, his hopes were dashed.

"We do. He hangs out by the movie theater around this time, I asked Cherry Valance."

There came a weak "Oh." from Johnny, and then we were silent, uncomfortably awaiting the confrontation to come.

We rounded the corner to the drive-in movie theater where I spend so much of my time. It looked different now, somehow bigger and more imposing. It was around my usual movie time, but the sky somehow seemed darker, more ominous. The line of cars somehow scared me, yet comforted me at the same time. At least if Bob killed us, there'd be witnesses. And there he was, by the rusty old fence, surrounded by beer bottles, beating up Cherry Valance. He was shouting something unintelligible at her, but as we got closer, his curse words were all too clear.

"Hey!" Bob shouted drunkenly, spotting the three of us at last. He dropped Cherry and started towards us on unsteady legs. Cherry took advantage of the opportunity to escape. As she scampered past us, I caught sight of her expression. It was pure terror filling those stunning eyes. Her long red hair whipped around her back as she half-turned to take in the sight of us.

"Be careful!" she whispered frantically, her eyes darting over to Bob, who was lurching ever closer. "He's stone drunk." She ran on, her soft footfalls puncturing the unusually silent air.

"Oh yeah, like we couldn't figure that out from all the beer bottles by his feet." Soda muttered sarcastically, and I was slightly surprised. That wasn't really a Sodapop thing to say. Two-Bit, maybe, but not Soda. I guess Two-Bit's sarcastic sense of humor was rubbing off on us.

"Whadda ya doing here?" Bob asked as soon as he got close enough. His words were so slurred that it took me a minute to figure out what he was saying.

"We...we want to know what you did to our sister." Soda managed bravely. We were standing in a line, me first, then Sodapop in the middle, and Johnny on the end, shaking like mad. Bob was leering over us, so close I could smell the booze on his breath.

"You're sister the dirty cripple with the mouth?" I shuddered. I had never heard so many insults against Amy in one sentence, and believe me, Amy gets plenty insulted. A lot of people don't even notice she's disabled until she takes out her wheelchair when she goes out. And it's true that Amy can get a bit mouthy at times. When she's stressed, her sarcastic sense of humor just sorta spills out and she gets mouthy.

"Yeah, that's her." Soda shifted from foot to foot, not meeting Bob's eyes. Johnny was cowering next Soda, whimpering like a frightened puppy. Bob noticed.

"Aw, and look who we have here! It's little Johnny Cade, scared of his own shadow after I beat him up good. Wanna 'nother beating, kid? Do ya?" Johnny shook his head frantically. He tried to say something, but all that came out was a frightened squeak. This made Bob roll with laughter, rocking back and forth on his unsteady feet. When he was finished, he turned back to me and Sodapop.

"Anyways, your bitch of a sister deserved what she got. Cripples like her shouldn't even be born. She shoulda been in a girls' home long ago. I'm surprised you kept her. But then again, your family's weird enough anyway." My blood boiled. He had no right to insult my family like that. I moved to hit him, slap him, whatever I could do to hurt him. But Johnny got there first. He slapped Bob so hard in the face that Bob staggered backwards a few feet, reeling drunkenly.

"Johnny..." I said in a shocked voice. Soda looked shocked, too. Was this shy little Johnny Cade we were seeing? Lately it seemed like my entire world was turning upside down and inside out. Nothing made sense anymore. Johnny looked just as shocked as us at his own daring. Before any of us could say anything more, he had turned tail and ran, his footfalls slapping across the concrete. Me and Sodapop were on our own.

"You'll pay for that, kid!" Bob bellowed after him. Then he turned back to us. "And you two will pay for both him and that bitchy crippled sister of yours!" It was me he hit first. He punched me so hard in the jaw that I could almost feel it dislocate. I heard another punch, and a groan, and I knew he was hurting Soda, too. Then Bob punched me again, this time square in the chest. He knocked me right over. I lashed out wildly, kicking and screaming and punching, trying to defend myself however I could. He kept on hitting. One of my kicks got Bob in the stomach, and he doubled over in pain. Sodapop took advantage of the opportunity.

"Come on, Pony, let's go!" Half running, half being dragged along by Soda, I just wanted to get as far away from Bob as I could. I was acutely aware that everybody in the movie house had stopped watching the movie and started watching us. We were now the entertainment, and truth be told, I really didn't care. I didn't even notice where we were running to until Sodapop dragged me up the front steps and into our house. Where Darry was sitting comfortably in an armchair, reading the newspaper. He lowered the newspaper slowly and stared at us.

"Sodapop Curtis, what in the world happened to you and Ponyboy?" he asked in shock. I took a good look at Soda. He was bleeding profusely from the side of his head, and he had the beginnings of a black eye. His left arm was swollen, and hung strangely at his side. I figured I looked just as bad. We had left a trail of blood behind us, whether Soda's or mine or both, I didn't really know.

"D-Darry!" Sodapop stammered in surprise. I knew he'd counted on Darry not being there when we got home, so we could clean ourselves up and act like nothing had ever happened. Just our luck that our plan had to go wrong.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" Soda continued. Darry got up, folding his newspaper neatly and placing it on the vacated armchair. He circled the two of us slowly, like a hawk circling its prey.

"Got out early." he said shortly, still circling the pair of us. "I thought I told you two to not go getting into any trouble."

"Well, uh, well we..." Soda stammered. But before he could come up with an excuse, the front door creaked open slowly. In came Kiera, on her stomach, just as bruised and bloody as me and Soda.

"Glory, Kiera, what happened?" Darry asked in alarm. "How'd you get up the steps?"s

"I grew angel wings and flew, what did you think? I _crawled_, you knuckleheads!" Kiera gasped. I had to smother a smile. Even when she's in considerable pain, Kiera never loses her sarcasm.

"What happened to you?" Darry asked again. Kiera shook her head.

"Bob." she gasped. "Is mad...about...you two...escaping...so he...took it out...on me. He...was chasing me...last time I...looked back."

"_Bob_?" Darry asked, looking at the three of us suspiciously. "Isn't that the Soc who beat up Johnny? What does he have to do with this?" The three of us exchanged guilty glances. We had vowed not to tell Darry about this, but now it looked like our secret was out.

"Well, uh, we..." Soda stuttered, trying to think of the best way to phrase to Darry that we lied to him, disobeyed him, and got ourselves into trouble yet again. But before he could go any farther, there came the sound of heavy footfalls. The front door banged loudly, making us all jump. A look of pure terror came over Kiera's face.

"Oh no." she gasped. "He's here!"

A/N: That was exactly seven pages. I'm on a roll. Sorry about the long chapter length. As always, review!


End file.
